Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett: Government is supposed to lift people out of poverty

Tina KorbePosted at 2:45 pm on September 29, 2011

Via TheBlaze.com, an original video that reveals just where the heads of some in this administration really are. If ever I needed proof that 99 percent of policy battles stem from different ideas about the purpose of government, Valerie Jarrett just provided it:

“We have to give people a livelihood so they can provide for their families,” Jarrett says in the video. “We are working hard to lift people out of poverty and give them a better life, a footing, and that’s what government is supposed to do.”

To be clear, conservatives don’t advocate limited government because they think it will increase poverty or fail to mitigate the suffering of “the least of these” — a phrase Jarrett uses repeatedly. We argue for limited government at least in part because we recognize that government-run social programs often exacerbate the very problems they’re intended to fix, perpetuating dependency. Limited government only works, it’s true, when the majority of the citizenry embraces personal responsibility and personal discipline, when intermediary institutions like the family and church fill in the gaps in our needs. But, in terms of creating happy, healthy outcomes for individuals, history shows us the administrative state virtually never works. That’s why I keep saying I’m waiting for a leader who will give voice to the simple truth that we are our problem (if for no other reason than that we’ve voted in this administration) — and we’re also our solution.